


I Knew You Would

by somepallings



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Also I needed to address Entrapta's time on Beast Island, Autistic behaviour, Beast Island community service, Canon Autistic Character, Disgustingly sweet, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, You know that thing where you have to tell someone how you feel and what you need from them, autistic author, but you need them to COMPLETELY understand you before you can let them reply, so you speak non stop for about 4 minutes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:01:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25042840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somepallings/pseuds/somepallings
Summary: A late-night conversation. Entrapta just needs to hear it from him, she already knows, she just needs to hear it.
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 247





	I Knew You Would

Nothing but the soft drip of rain on the canvas, and the rustling of things in the undergrowth nearby.

Hordak had been pleased to learn that it could do something as normal as rain here.

The tent city that had sprung up around Entrapta’s makeshift workshop was quiet. Volunteers and convicted ex-Horde alike were tired after a long day of fieldstripping, sorting, cataloguing.

Everyone was sleeping a lot better since they got the signal under control. It had got a few of them in early days – the ones with the most to regret, the most to feel guilty about.

It would have gotten Hordak too, if it hadn’t been for Entrapta.

He lay in the darkness of the tent, on his simple cot. He ached.

Entrapta’s tent was next to his. He had put up the poles himself, while she was off dragging together bits and pieces of who knows what in order to put together a generator. She’d found everything they needed on their first day. She was a marvel.

They’d each been equipped with a pillow, a blanket, a mattress pad to make the cot more comfortable. He’d kept his mattress pad, left the rest in her tent. He wouldn’t need them, didn’t want them, and she deserved comfort, more comfort than he had ever given her.

Astonishing, that she’d survived here for so long by herself. Unforgivable, that he hadn’t known she was here at all.

They had not discussed it.

Hordak did not need to sleep as often as the Etherians did, but he did need to rest his body frequently and found night-time as good a time to do so as any. Beast Island at night was not a hospitable place, better to stay within the fortified bounds of the tent city and live another day than to brave the dripping silicon forest to no good end.

And he did want to live, he was finding, to his surprise.

A life in which fraternal piety did not loom large was something he had never been able to contemplate, but here he was, living it.

Entrapta shifted in her bed. He could hear her. He could hear most things that happened in the tent city at night, and he did _everything_ in his power to tune most of it out, but she was right next door.

He rolled over to face away from her. He didn’t mean to pry.

She audibly sighed, making his ears pin back against his head without his say-so. He heard a pillow thump onto the tarp-covered, hard-packed dirt floor. His pillow. He grinned to himself, the red glow of his teeth spilling into the dark of the tent.

She shuffled violently. He heard something unidentifiable happening, probably the pillow being picked up by a tendril of hair and then jammed violently back into the bed.

When they finally had enough materials, cleared land, and time, they would build some more permanent structures. They would have their own quarters. A sleeping chamber each, with a shared adjoining room. Hordak had drawn up the plans. There was going to be a complex here, a bit like the Fright Zone, but lighter, brighter. A permanent workshop for the best minds of Etheria to come and work with First Ones' technology.

This was meant to be atonement, but so far it had been …a dream. A dream he would never have dared to have, would never have dared even to wish to fall asleep for, until now.

Closing his eyes, he fell into a doze. The rain continued to patter on the canvas of the tent.

“Hey!”

He opened his eyes, once again suffusing the inside of the tent with faint red glow.

“Entrapta?” he quietly “Is everything alright?”

She was standing in the entrance to his tent, blanket draped over her shoulders, hugging a pillow to her front with both arms, her hair holding the tent flap open.

“Can I come in?” she asked, still not really managing to bring her voice down to a whisper.

He sat up. “Of course.”

She made her way over to the bed, and he realised that she had both the pillows and both the blankets. She meant to settle in then. He made no attempt to hide his smile. He was still getting used to having someone to smile at.

She plopped herself onto the cot next to him. There was barely room, so he slid off the smooth canvas surface of the mattress pad and settled himself on the tarp floor. The earth was firm and cool underneath.

“Oh, no, Hordak-” she began to protest, but he raised a finger to his lips and arranged himself more comfortably, his legs stretched out next to the bed, and his arms and upper body leaning sideways onto the cot, where she had deposited the blankets and pillows.

She grumbled to herself but snuggled down further into the nest she had made. He leaned in towards her and put his head very near to hers, so she could speak quietly and still know he could hear. His right arm wrapped naturally around her back and shoulders; his left arm was bent in at the elbow so that his hand lay very close to hers on the cot.

“Did you wish to speak with me? Or simply to sleep here?” he asked very quietly, endeavouring to convey that both options were fine with him.

She didn’t say anything at first. Hordak was content to wait. Entrapta very rarely wished to share sleeping quarters, so spending some peaceful, quiet time with her was always welcome. He closed his eyes. He did not want her to be troubled by their glow if she simply wanted to fall asleep.

Very slowly and gently she began to stroke one finger against the palm of his left hand. Night-time was the only time she didn’t wear her thick work gloves, so the touch of her bare finger against his skin was novel and soothing and extremely intimate.

He was in no danger of falling asleep himself. His earlier doze had been refreshing enough, and although he didn’t mind the cold, the hard earth under his body would make his muscles ache soon enough. He didn’t mind that either, if she would keep stroking her finger along his upturned palm.

She made a small sound, as if she was hesitating. He opened his eyes once more. Her finger stroked faster, agitated.

“Hordak,” she whispered, her breath tickling his ear, “Can I talk to you about something?”

“Of course,” he murmured, tilting his head a little to look at her. Her eyes glistened, reflecting his own.

“I need to- I need us to- I need to- “

He waited. She took a deep, shaky breath.

“When I was here, before, and I thought you knew I was here, and I didn’t know that Catra lied to you, and I was here on Beast Island for almost 40 tide-cycles, and I did a lot, I _learned_ a lot, you have _no idea_ , if I’d known we’d be back here, doing _this_ , I’d have made sure to study even more - but Adora came and they wouldn’t let me stay - and I know you didn’t know, I know that _now,_ and I know you’ve been through so much but I still need you to tell me, I don’t want to make you say something you don’t want to say but I – I have to tell you what I need because you’re not psychic and it’s not fair to expect you to just know what to say – I need you to tell me- ”

She broke off to breathe, and he could see that tears were pouring from her eyes. He tightened his arm around her shoulders and curled his fingers inward to gently take her hand. He waited, wanting to let her finish. It was obviously costing her a lot to say this to him.

“I need you to tell me that you would have come to find me. If you had known I was here. If you hadn’t thought -” her face twisted with emotion, she couldn’t go on.

Hordak sighed. He closed his eyes and leaned his head down, almost touching her cheek with his own.

“You are not making me say anything I do not want to say. I assure you I would never say something I did not mean. Do you believe me?”

She nodded her head against the blanket.

“If I had known that you were here, alone, and that you thought I had abandoned you, I would have moved the heavens and Etheria to find you. I would have come here myself to get you, if I had had to.”

She sniffed and twined her fingers more firmly into his.

“But you thought I betrayed you,” she said in a small voice.

Hordak didn’t say anything for a few moments. It was true, there had been a time he had been furious, sick, betrayed. He sighed again.

“Even then, when I had so foolishly believed Catra’s lies, my dearest wish was to meet you on the battlefield. I told myself I wanted to… to hurt you, but really I… I simply wished to see you. I could not think beyond that. My only two goals: to see you again, and to prove myself to my brother.”

His head dropped lower, he rested his forehead against hers.

“I am thankful every day that only one of those goals was achieved.”

They sat in silence for a while, holding hands, heads together.

“It’s not fair, you know,” said Entrapta eventually, “Catra’s just walking around in Bright Moon, holding hands with Adora. They’re not making her sleep in a tent on a dangerous island in the middle of the ocean.”

Hordak smiled. He would much rather she was getting indignant on his behalf than torturing herself with her own bad memories.

“Entrapta darling, you have to remember that Catra has She-Ra herself keeping an eye on her, making sure she behaves herself. As formidable as you are, few would believe you possess quite the same pacifying force. And,” he said, as he tipped his chin to plant a soft kiss on her cheekbone, “in any case, I would rather be in a tent with you in the middle of the ocean than anywhere else.”

Her eyes were screwed shut, but could just make out her grin in the faint red light, and he could feel her paddling her feet in joy under the covers. He leaned back once again to give her some space to sleep. She loosened her grip on his hand, but kept her pinkie hooked around his middle finger. Her feet fell still, and she started to breathe more deeply, worn out from her emotional outburst and cradled safely in his arms.

As she drifted off, he heard her faintly murmur: "I knew you would."

Hordak stretched his legs, wincing slightly, and closed his eyes again to wait out the dark.


End file.
